


All darkness dies in the light but all stars are born in the dark.

by jungle_ride



Category: Original Work
Genre: Forbidden Love, Letters, Light Angst, Love Letters, Magic, Other, Secret Relationship, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23842720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jungle_ride/pseuds/jungle_ride
Summary: Transactions into and from the shadow realm were difficult even for the most skilled of mages.
Relationships: Light Mage/Dark Mage, Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4
Collections: Unsent Letters 2020





	All darkness dies in the light but all stars are born in the dark.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roguefaerie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguefaerie/gifts).



> Aright, so I knew I wanted to do something with the pairing of Light Mage/Dark Mage but I honestly wasn't sure what exactly to explore until I saw you had only listed Widow(er)/The Spirit of their Deceased Spouse. A thought struck me then, what if i mash the two together? Once I'd thought about doing that, I couldn't leave it alone, this idea sprang into my mind and began to flesh itself out, so I decided to run with it. I also decided I wanted to leave the genders of the characters open to the interpretation of the reader so I use the Latin words for lover and dearest. Amans & Carissime. I really hope you find some enjoyment in this because I had a lot of fun exploring this world/couple. Happy reading.

Amans, 

The grand council of Lumen officially announced their list of fallen mages tonight. Imagine my surprise, my horror at seeing your name in bright golden leaf lettering upon their marble tablet. I suspect you already know the fury that now burns in my blood. I am sick with it. You have unceremoniously cursed me, injected me with ancient poisoned magic that I’m now forced to endure. That of grief. And here I thought I was a dark mage. Despair and emptiness now rip me apart. I’m a ragged body, torn and broken by the carelessness of one who had, only several nights previously, sworn to protect it above all else. Did you not denounce the former pledges you’d made to Lumen? We will be as one, now and forever. The light and the dark are both home to us now, and we will make war with neither. Were those not the exact words you said to me the night of Beltane? 

I should have known better than to listen to a light mage. Yours is a world of foolishness. You and your kin are blinded by the light you pledge yourself to. Where was its promise of warmth and protection on that battlefield? Where was the power of the light when the darkness came to claim you? What were you even doing there? We agreed on the night of Beltane, when we finally shed the chains of our former loyalties, the ones that held us apart for so long, that we would not become involved in either Guilds foolish disputes for power. In fact to be more precise it was YOU who demanded it. 

I had been so proud of you.There you were my petal, always so soft and gentle, suddenly hard and mighty. Twisting and turning words to manipulate the power you had over a heart that before you I'd never known existed. It was you and you alone that convinced me to break away from a density assigned to me since I was 3 years old and the council of Tenebrae had first claimed me. They do not hold your soul. That’s what you always told me, when guilt would irrevocably find me, those nights are bodies entwined. A dark mage and a light mage. It is blasphemy. A sacrilege against all the holy deities of magic and yet….

And yet when I tread the path of those thoughts, I find myself going back to that old dilemma we used to discuss so often, back when we were first dancing around the line we had not yet crossed. You know what it is I’m referring to? She is, after all, what first brought us together. The moon. 

Both Tenebrae and Lumen pledge their love and devotion to her, offering her gifts and allegiance. We both use her to assist and fuel our magic, but the moon is the maiden, mother and crone of the night, she rules over its realm. So why then does Lumen worship her too? 

You remember I'm sure, my frustration, revulsion and lack of understanding when I’d stumbled upon you in the forest, calling upon her power to aid you in your healing spell that first night we met. Your equal disgust that I had come to the forest to use her power to aid in a spell meant to curse. What did we agree on after months of debate? When we danced frivolously upon a blade of tensions and unresolved passions. It’s all about balance. You can not have one without the other. For only in darkness can you see the light. 

So on the night of Betane, as the dark of the midnight hour rose and the moon’s light shone down upon us I made my choice. I married you. You, whose soul is now lost in the wildness of shadows. Again I am left wondering why you dismissed your own conviction to aid in a pointless war. We were supposed to escape the chaos of this world, run away to the mountains in the east where no guilds stand, so why instead of meeting me that day like planned, did you go to the battlefield instead? I know in the deepest darkest parts of myself that whatever the reason it has nothing to do with lack of love for me. Still I’m confused, lost to this bleeding wound of betrayal? Is this to be our fate? The end of our story?

I will not allow it!

I know the shadow realm well, I have played in it’s darkness all my life and there is still time. 

Forever yours, 

Carissime

~~~~~~~~~

To dry the still wet ink, the mage who is known to one as Carissime blew gently on the parchment before folding it neatly in half and laying it on the forest floor before a small ritual fire. Calling upon the realms of darkness they, using well trained hands, drew sigils into the earth beneath them, whispering words that sizzled with power into the night air. Removing their athame from it’s sheath, they made a cut along the index finger of their left hand before spreading the blood across their lips.  Picking up the letter they pressed their lips firmly upon the parchment, staining it with a kiss of blood, before throwing it into the flames of the fire. The flames turned from their orange red glow to a burning green before fading off into a midnight purple and finally extinguishing into darkness. 

Exhaling the mage expelled the remains of their pent up energy back into the universe. It was no longer needed, at least not for the moment. All they could do now was wait. Wait and plan. They had not expected their Amans to reply. Transactions into and from the shadow realm were difficult even for the most skilled of mages. No member of the Lumen, to their knowledge, had ever been able to navigate its power. For the shadow realms power, the place where the souls of the dead first go before making their way into the after-realm, was linked closely to magic based in necromancy and its power had been reserved only for the Tenebrae to dance in. 

When the reply came, it was a flurry of frantic words. It’s words tilting their world onto a new axis and bringing forth a new surge of purpose and understanding of the fabric of this world. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Carissime, 

Lumen lies! I fell not in battle but by their hands. I dug too deep and for that please forgive me, but Carissime, this is important. I discovered something before they struck. Something I’d been wondering since I first came to love you. The binding of light and dark, it’s not the weakness they would have us believe. They lie! We were right. It is a balance. 

Carissime, we’re not the first. The ancient mages, they were both! Some more dark, some more light but all bound together. They used the magic of both. Our world now is built on their spilt blood. On treason and betrayal! On blasphemy! 

True power is gained by the binding of light and dark, not the division. Carissime, what light and dark can do together...it’s limitless. They fear us!

I can only send this to you now, not through the power of my own light but the darkness I hold. The dark I discovered through my soul entwining with yours. I told you that they do not own your soul. This is true. I keep it, it is with me now, as mine is with yours. There is an unspoken power between us that we must now unleash. Carissime we were not the first and we shall not the last. 

There are others….light and dark mages who have bound themselves together and fled. The Lumen hunts them! We must find them! We must rise up against the Guilds! They must fall! We must unite our people once more!

I know you are planning to bring me back on the night of Samhain, using the darkness, but Carissime you mustn’t! I won’t be me if you do. You know this. This can not be the work of necromancy. Carissime you must use the light as well! I am not yet skilled enough in the ways of the dark to make this letter longer, already I can feel the connection waning but I pray that you have understood my words. Claim me back, but do it in harmony with the light and dark that we both now hold. 

If you need guidance my love, look to the moon, she will show you the way. 

Eternally yours, 

Amans

~~~~~~~~

When they had read the last word the ink, once dark and black, began to glow bright and luminous, the letters lifting off the page in a silver mist that danced upwards into the night sky. The mage didn’t mind, they did not need to see them again for their imprint was already deeply carved into their mind's eye. Lifting a hand they trailed their fingers through the fluttering mist, tracing sigils they had seen used only by a softer hand than theirs. Watching with new found inspiration, the mist transformed itself before them into a  kaleidoscope of  butterflies and moths that flew away, up and up back to mother moon who shone down upon them all. 

There was a new spark of energy ignited inside the mage as they watched; they could feel it all around, it sparked in the air, heated the ground below their feet. Samhain was only 3 months away and there was still much to do. Books to read, knowledge to gain, herbs to harvest, oils to collect, blood and bones to claim. They needed to work quickly and they needed to work in a way they had never done before but as they basked in the full beams of the moon’s light remembering their Amans words their lips curled upwards. Things were about to change.


End file.
